How Well Do Your Kids Really Know the Classics?

In anticipation of our upcoming Disney Magic Cruise and Disney World Trip later this year, I took my 7-yr-old twin boys to hear the Marshall, TX Symphony play Disney music. Towards the end of the show I realized my kids did not know the classic songs and characters! The only one they knew was Pirates the Caribbean! My guess is the girls of today prob know them better than the boys. But I plan to do some Disney Education Before we go I challenge you to ask your children if they know the following movies/characters: Aladdin, Beauty & The Beast, The Rescuers, The Little Mermaid, Lion King, Mary Poppins! You might be surprised as I was!!!

Its hard to get older boys to watch "Princess movies". My 8 yr old son, finally has watched most of the movies, mainly at the school's after school program. However he is very familiar with a lot of obscure Disney characters, like Willy the Whale Ferdinand the Bull, Bongo, Silly Symphonies and Oswald etc. We bought the Treasure's Tin collection many years ago and we enjoy watching all the Disney short cartoons. When we went to WDW the only character besides Mickey he had to see was Mary Poppins, because she is "practically perfect in every way"

Oh yes! DS5 knows all the classics including both Fantasias which used to run on a loop in our house. Although he has seen most of the movies, I also have most soundtracks on CD including a classic Walt Disney music 3 CD set so he even knows Turkey in the Straw from Steamboat Willie and, of course, Zip a Dee Doo Dah although Song of the South was never released for home viewing in the USA. We will be going to hear the Little Orchestra Society perform music from Fantasia in April in NYC - super excited!

When our kids were about four and six we were watching a parade at Disneyland. My shoulders weren't strong enough for DD4 to sit on them very long, so a kind young adult guy put her on his shoulders because she could identify all the characters going by. He didn't know who was who, so she educated him.

Not only did my daughter know all the Disney classics, she knew much of the music from Fantasia, Sleeping Beauty, etc. One day in the car the music (classical) from Sleeping Beauty came on and she knew it (I didn't!). Some of her music knowledge came from the Barbie movies (Nutcracker, Swan Lake) but some from Disney.

Admittedly, my daughter was a sponge for the music and dialog of any movie. When she was 4 and Wizard of Oz obsessed, she turned to me one day and said 'I'm up to the Lion.' She'd watch it in 4-5 minute clips, rewind and memorize the songs and dialog, then watch it again and repeat along with it. I almost crashed the car the day I heard a squeaky little voice from the back seat start to sing "The wind began to twitch, the house to pitch, and suddenly the hinges started to unhitch."

My DS 12 has now watched the 'girly' films as he calls then due to DD 4 being Disney obsessed since she watched her first Disney DVD at 2 (I didn't allow too much tv before that age) it was snow white .. We have a good collections of Disney DVDs from when i first got them for DS & now have all the girly ones too .. which DS has enjoyed!
DD does better in Disney scene it than DS though & also on the many Disney quizzes we have on our phones!

I'm very sorry, and I'm not quoting this to be mean-spirited, but all I can think of reading this thread is this Tweet from Progress City:

"Parents, if your six-year-old can't recognize any of the Muppets, that's on you."

In other words, what happened to Family Movie Nights? Back in my day, we watched what mom and dad brought home from the mom-and-pop video store and our cinematic literacy is the better for it. You all watched a (usually animated Disney) movie together and shared the experience as a family. I'm genuinely upset if this isn't the case anymore.

We have been renting movies like crazy from the library - anything and everything with a Disney logo on it. Also, for Christmas, we bought him the Character Encyclopedia which we read a few pages of each night before bed.

In anticipation of our upcoming Disney Magic Cruise and Disney World Trip later this year, I took my 7-yr-old twin boys to hear the Marshall, TX Symphony play Disney music. Towards the end of the show I realized my kids did not know the classic songs and characters! The only one they knew was Pirates the Caribbean! My guess is the girls of today prob know them better than the boys. But I plan to do some Disney Education Before we go I challenge you to ask your children if they know the following movies/characters: Aladdin, Beauty & The Beast, The Rescuers, The Little Mermaid, Lion King, Mary Poppins! You might be surprised as I was!!!

Click to expand...

Every single one, and many more besides!!

The only ones they didn't like, and so have only seen probably once or twice are the very old ones like Snow White, Pinocchio, Bambi, and Dumbo. They also don't care for the "weird years" (IMHO) of Disney animation - Black Cauldron, Rescuers Down Under, etc. Of the more recent ones, they have seen them all but DO NOT LIKE Hunchback, Beauty and the Beast, and a couple of the Pixar ones. I think they have seen them all, though.

They also have seen a lot of the live-action ones. We own a lot of them, and some personal favorites are (the original) Parent Trap, Swiss Family Robinson, Love Bug, Pete's Dragon, and all of the True Life Adventures.

We own quite a few of the Silver Boxed Treasures collection, so I can say with certainty that they have also seen a pretty large chunk of the original Disney shorts.

We are pretty obsessed with all things Disney though, and maybe not quite "normal".

When I was 5/6 years old my favourite Disney movie was The Three Caballeros! None of my friends have even heard of this movie. I don't have any children, but if I do, they will be getting a serious Disney education!

When I was 5/6 years old my favourite Disney movie was The Three Caballeros! None of my friends have even heard of this movie. I don't have any children, but if I do, they will be getting a serious Disney education!

Click to expand...

This is one of MY favorite movies!! My kids know it well, simply because *I* watch it all the time.

They love Pablo the Penguin who wants to move south (DD18 says she feels his pain) and the goofy Aracuan bird and his kooky little song.